Pura
Vida

Direct flight UA1876 from Newark (EWR) into Liberia (LIR) — the cheapest and most convenient entry for this trip. Pick up your 4WD rental car and head straight to the Rincón de la Vieja area, just 45 minutes away. The drive is easy and you'll have daylight to spare. Afternoon swim at the lodge pool, a cold Imperial beer, and your first howler monkey serenade at dusk.

An active volcano park that looks like another planet — boiling mud pots, sulphur fumaroles, turquoise hot springs, and a volcano summit trail. All four kids can do the Las Pailas loop (3.5 miles, easy terrain). In the afternoon: the waterfall at Cangreja or a horseback ride through the dry tropical forest. This is Guanacaste's best-kept secret — far fewer crowds than Arenal.

Leave Hacienda Guachipelín around 10am for the 3.5-hour scenic drive east across Costa Rica to La Fortuna, with the iconic Arenal volcano appearing on the horizon as you approach. Check-in at the Nature Pool & Garden villa is at 2pm — the timing lines up nicely with a lunch stop along the way. After a full travel day, keep the afternoon easy: unpack, let the kids loose in the villa's nature pool, then an early dinner or supermarket stock-up on the 10-minute run into La Fortuna town. Watch for the volcano on the horizon as the afternoon clouds clear.

Hotel pickup at 7:30am with Red Lava TSC for your booked full-day tour (confirmation #1785477833). Morning: hike down to La Fortuna Waterfall — 500 steps to a 70-metre cascade with a cold-water swimming hole at the base. Midday: Arenal Volcano National Park trails with your local guide, eyes on the cone for turkey vultures riding the thermals off the summit. Lunch and all beverages included. Afternoon: geothermally heated hot springs built into the volcanic jungle — soaking in steaming natural pools surrounded by rainforest while it rains lightly is genuinely otherworldly. National park fees, lunch, beverages, and guide all included. Small group (12 max). Drop-off back at your hotel in the evening.

Checkout from La Fortuna by 11am — one day early, trading the last Arenal day for an extra night on the coast. The drive to Sámara takes about 4–4.5 hours: west through the Tilarán corridor, south on the Interamericana through Cañas, then the Nicoya Peninsula turnoff at Comunidad and the final descent on Route 150 to the coast. The landscape shifts dramatically as you drop off the volcanic highlands — temperature climbs, vegetation thins into dry tropical forest, and at some point the Pacific appears on the horizon. Check in at Villa Lapa at 3pm. With any energy left, walk the 200 metres to the beach, find a cold drink, and watch the sun go down. Sámara faces west — the sunsets are the entertainment here.

Your first whole day on the Pacific — and the bonus day the extra night bought you. No agenda, that's the point. Sámara is one of the calmest, safest swimming beaches on the coast: a reef across the bay keeps the surf gentle, so the youngest can wade freely while the older kids explore. Slow breakfast from the bakery in town, then into the water. The afternoon is yours — snorkel the reef, kayak around the bay, walk the shore to Playa Buena Vista, or nothing at all. Get the lay of the land: scout the surf schools for a lesson later in the week and pick a dinner spot. Sámara punches above its size — wood-fire grill at El Lagarto, Italian at Gusto, ceviche shacks on the waterfront.

Start with the feria — Sámara's Saturday farmers' market is the best fresh produce on this stretch of coast: pineapple, mango, papaya, plantains, tomatoes and greens straight from Nicoya Peninsula growers, plus eggs, local cheese and honey. Cheaper and fresher than the supermarkets, and a perfect stock-up for the week ahead in the villa kitchen. Go early — roughly 7–10am, before the heat and before the best stuff sells out. June is peak mango and mamón chino (rambutan) season, so fill a bag. (Confirm the exact day and spot with the villa concierge when you arrive — small-town market days can shift.) Back to the bay for the afternoon: the reef across the mouth keeps the surf gentle, so the youngest can wade freely while the older kids range further. Snorkel, kayak, walk the shore to Playa Buena Vista, or nothing at all. Another dinner in town — wood-fire grill at El Lagarto, Italian at Gusto, ceviche shacks on the waterfront.

Morning: a group surf lesson in Sámara's bay — a reef across the mouth keeps the surf gentle, and the bay's ends throw up tidy 1-metre rollers that are textbook beginner-surf; your 14- and 12-year-olds will be standing by the end of the session, the 10-year-old close behind. (Nothing's booked yet — most schools take walk-ups, but you can reserve a morning slot the day before.) Afternoon: drive 10 minutes south to Playa Carrillo — a postcard arc of palm-backed sand, almost no development, calm water, picnic tables in the shade. Bring a cooler. Snorkel the reef, ride horseback along the waterline at low tide, or just paddleboard the bay. Drive back to Sámara for sunset and dinner.

Worth the wander up the coast — Nosara is about 45 minutes north on a bumpy road (4WD earns its keep), and it's the surf-and-food capital of this stretch of coast. Playa Guiones is a vast, dramatic beach and the place to learn — dozens of schools, beach breaks that suit beginners (a touch more shore-break and current than Sámara, so this is the older kids' surf day; keep the 7-year-old on the sand or in the shallows with a parent). Lunch and dinner here are the best on the peninsula — La Luna right on the beach, Burgers & Beers Reggae Bar, the Bodhi Tree café, beachfront sushi. Drive back to Sámara for the night, or linger for the Guiones sunset.

Arrive by 8:15am at the boat launch — only a ~10-minute drive from the villa, right here in the Sámara bay, so leave around 8:00. The ~3.5-hour tour combines wildlife watching along the coast and reef snorkeling, back ashore around noon. Bring sunscreen, hats, water sandals, and a dry bag; the snorkel gear is provided. Afternoon is open — back to the villa for lunch and a slow beach afternoon once everyone's dried off. Last few days of the trip; no need to fill it.

The do-nothing day — the one the whole trip has been building toward. Drive 10 minutes south to Playa Carrillo: a postcard arc of palm-backed sand, almost no development, calm water, picnic tables in the shade. Bring a cooler. Older kids can rent boards back in Sámara to practise what they learned; younger ones build the day's eighteenth sandcastle. Optional add-ons if anyone's restless: a horseback ride along the beach at low tide, a stand-up paddle in the bay, or a quick boat trip out to Isla Chora to snorkel. Otherwise: read, swim, nap, repeat. Last big dinner in Sámara.

One last morning on the beach — no agenda, just the Pacific. Drive to Liberia airport (LIR) takes about 2 hours from Sámara on a smooth paved road. Drop the rental car, fly home Thursday. An afternoon or early-evening departure works perfectly — no brutal 5am wake-up — and you're back at EWR or JFK the same night. Everyone will be salty, lightly sunburned, and already arguing about where to go next.